US scientists believe it could be possible to use artificial electric eel cells grafted into the human body to generate power for cybernetic implant devices. The pseudo-electrocytes would harvest the necessary energy from body fats and sugars.
Engineer David LaVan of the US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) …

Oh dear

Humans are inefficient

New High-Tech Application

With several of these devices implanted and connected to versatile energy transmission devices (obviously through robust and very durable energy couplings, able to withstand the full range of human activities), you could generate enough energy to power a heated thermal vest to keep warm in cold conditions.

Fat bottom girls make the new energy markets go round

Plug the old wife in at the mains and she can pay the phone bill while she natters.

Any lip and just reverse the current flow ;-)

Ain't technology wonderful.

<pedant> Excluding the 5p connection charge, its 2p a min to other landlines on BT, so having both parties wired up at 1p/hour makes the call free. If its a fat burd, might even make a profit </pedant>

But

hmm bio tek grafts eh.....

I reckon I could get served so much quicker in the local with some electric ray/catfish implants. Sneak up behind whomever's next in the queue and Zap...... Saves carrying the official BofH brand industrial cattleprod. Cone shell venom delivery implants next anyone ?

@Rich Bryant

Where There's a Will ...

... there's a way. So what if women got the idea that they could implant ... umm ... arousal devices powered from their implanted 'leccy-eel power generatiors? They could slim and have fun at the same time!

I bet Paris would want to be a Guinea Pig ..... well, not an actual small furry animal, but, you know, a testing candidate .... although whether or not she's been overly affectionate with small furry animals is probably a matter of debate ....

"artificial electric eel cells grafted into the human body"

Adenosine triphosphate

Is used in signaling between nerve cells. Energy is produced from it by breaking the phosphate bonds. When all the phosphate bonds have been broken, the adenosine (if I'm remembering this correctly) migrates back along the signal path to the preceding nerve/neuron and inhibits it from firing, as the receiving cell (the one that has released the adenosine) has no resources left to deal with any input. One of the ways in which caffeine works in the body is by binding onto adenosine receptor sites, without inhibiting the cell, thereby blocking adenosine from other cells from binding, which allows that nerve/neuron to keep firing.

All of which leads me to wonder if people with such implants will be restricted from consuming anything caffeinated.

Enforcement

It should be obligitary for everybody to have such cells implanted in their chest wired up to a kind of biological rfid chip keyed to the persons DNA. Whenever a crime was committed the police could simply remote activate the cells of the person with the offending dna, producing a severe tazing effect. The perpetrator could be kept incapactiated until local police had located and arrested them. For minor crimes a remote tazong might be sufficient as a punishment thus saving both the police's and the court's.

New Field Needs a New Name

You know, this invention of subcutaneous 'leccy-eel power generation and ideas for associated implanted devices (including the female arousal type) could spawn an entirely new field of endeavour. Of course, this field would need a name. I suggest we call it .... "Twat-a-tronics".

*changes name to Copper-top*

Great idea!

Quick thought: Mobile ITX will be 7W, which is 23,334 times what one 4mm cube can create.

That's still only 0.001493376 cubic meters (1.5ltrs) of properly harnessed fat that'll be needed! I'm pretty sure that I've got more than that spare over my body (not much more though, ladies :P) - so with a bit of this new bio-tech stuff they're telling me that I could turn my fat into Quake-3 capable levels of computing power?!

Which would be able to use my non-computing downtime to zap my muscles and gradually make me a bit musclier etc?

Now we just need a decent retinal implant, camera implants for visual feedback and a high-fat diet to keep it all running and we'll have JC Dentons and AR-equipped athletes running about!

Food price

Nice idea about plugging one's self into the mains and feeding electricity back into the grid and being paid for it, but I wonder, if the price of food required to generate that electricity would be more expensive than the cost the power company is willing to pay you for it..in which, it's a non starter.